Delinquency

by Daemon McRae

Essay Nine: I Told You That Story to Tell You This Story

Author's Note:

Long overdue next chapter

Essay Nine: I Told You That Story to Tell You This Story

Rubble had just gotten the last of his clothes on when another knock on the door made him turn around. He recognized it instantly as Spooky, even before he saw him. The kid was so diminished some days even the sounds he made were hollow. “What’s up, Bones?”

“I wanted to talk to you about, well, your dad,” Spooky said hesitantly, looking around for their new tagalong.

“Yeah?” Rubble grunted. “What about him?”

Spooky sighed. He knew some conversations just weren’t destined to go anywhere good. He’d had plenty of discussions like this both with friends and clients alike, and it was almost always a bad time all around. “Look, you know the rules. Possession? Intelligent hauntings? It never ends well.”

RM rolled his eyes. “You think I don’t know that? I’m not quite as stupid as you all seem to think I am. But how am I supposed to just shove him off? He’s my dad, Spooky. If you recall, that’s kind of a big deal.”

Bones slumped into a chair and sighed. “Yes, I’m aware. Look, I’m not saying we have to kick him out like, right now. But sooner or later he’s going to need a cleansing, before it turns into an exorcism. I just want you to be ready for that. The living and dead don’t mingle, Rubble. Not for long. And when they do it’s a ticking time bomb at best.”

“Wow,” Rubble groaned, throwing open a closet and packing his stuff in his duffel bag. “You really know how to throw a party, you know that?”

“Hey, if you wanted a bunch of snowy, feel-good bullshit with sprinkles on top I could have sent Treble in to have this conversation with you,” Bones grunted, his face a stoic mask.

They traded glances, not unkindly, and fell silent for a few moments before Rubble went back to packing and Spooks pulled out a book to read. There was a stiff yet companionable silence between the two, as if they both understood the other, but were too stubborn to say anything else.

It was a few moments before anyone said anything, and it was Dusty leading Indigo back to the room. “See, I told you we should have taken a right back there at the giant teddy bear!” Zap exclaimed, peeking around the open door and seeing she finally had the right room. “Finally!” She threw her hands in the air in exasperation and let them fall around Rubble’s shoulders. “Hey, what’s up? You’re all tense.”

Dusty stumbled in immediately after, rolling his eyes. “Ok, yes, I was wrong, we’re here now, whatever. God, this is why I hate public service buildings. Everything looks the freakin’ same.” Seeing the tension in the room, he raised an eyebrow at Spooks. “You had the Ghost Talk with him, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did,” Spooks said defensively. “Everyone needs to hear the Ghost Talk.”

“Eh,” Dusty said with a shrug. “Your call. I mean, we kind of did vote you in.”

Rubble chuckled a little, and Indigo smiled slightly as she felt some of the stress leave his body. “Yeah, I remember that. There was a lot of kicking and screaming.”

“I did not kick and/or scream anything,” Spooky insisted, turning slightly red.

“You did kinda yell ‘for fuck’s sake’ in a loud and carrying voice. And we still can’t open that file cabinet all the way,” Dusty said with a snide grin.

“You and I both know that’s because Rubble side-tackled it when he thought it was still haunted.”

Rubble threw his bag over his shoulder and gave Indigo’s shoulders a squeeze with his other arm, partially to keep himself steady on his bad leg. “Well if someone had been kind enough to hold off on the exorcism until I got there-”

“Yadda yadda you miss all the fun,” Dusty whined mockingly, throwing Rubble’s cane at him. Between the bag in one hand and the girl on the other, Rubble had difficulty catching it with anything other than his face. Indigo, however, still had two free hands, and nabbed it herself before yet another injury put her boyfriend back in the hospital bed.

“Anyone tell you your friends are total dicks?” she asked.

“Literally all the time,” the three boys chorused.

Indigo just sighed.

-----------------------------

“Ok, I am TELLING YOU that this giant fucking rabbit was not here half an hour ago,” Dusty argued, pointing at a people-sized stuffed bunny with a price tag around it’s neck. It sat in a little nook right outside the gift shop, around which the four had gathered as they looked for their friends to leave.

“And I’m telling you there’s only one gift shop on this whole damn floor, and this is it!” Indigo barked back.

Rubble was torn between backing her up, which he had no grounds to do as he neither remembered nor gave a shit about giant stuffed animals, and letting her argue with Dusty. He opted for the distinctly more amusing option, instead turning his attention to Spooky, who was taking a vested interest in the giant rabbit up for debate. “You, uh, got a thing for bunny wabbits, Spooks?”

Bones did little more to acknowledge his friend than cast a middle finger over his shoulder, as he poked the stuffed animal with his other hand. He turned the sign over, rolled the bunny on its side, and did pretty much everything short of giving it a physical before putting it back, at which point Rubble was somewhat concerned about his friend.

“No seriously what’s with the rabbit?” Rubble asked again.

“Dunno. But Dusty is right, this wasn’t here earlier. Strange,” Spooks noted.

Dusty looked triumphant. “HA!”

Until Rubble rolled his eyes. “Seriously? Did it occur to none of you that maybe they just sold the damn bear and brought out a rabbit later?”

Spooks and Dusty traded glances. “Um...” Dusty trailed off sheepishly.

“No, no that did not occur to us,” Spooks admitted. Rubble felt like smacking one or both of them with his hospital cane, but opted to bank it for when he had a proper stick to hit them with.

“Oh my god,” Rubble grunted, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Ok, they’re not here. Which means they probably went to the cafeteria. Or the other gift shop. So can we get away from the giant rabbit now?”

Indigo stuck her tongue out at Dusty and lopped her arm through Rubble’s, striding along smugly as they made their way to the elevator. After a few right turns and a left, they found it. As well as the large ‘OUT OF ORDER’ sign on a pole in front of it. “Oh well that’s just wonderful,” Indigo grunted. “No wonder they’ve been gone so long, the stairs are like five miles away.”

“Well, we better get walking,” Spooky said, and turned on his heel to lead them away.

They walked in companionable silence until Indigo piped up. “Hey, so I’ve been meaning to ask, but do you guys have like, a club name or something?”

Dusty shrugged. “Not really. We tried a few names at first, when we were starting out and actually getting into the groove of things, but nothing stuck, really. I mean, it’s not like we make business cards or whatever. Mostly we just call each other when weird shit happens we can’t take care of on our own.”

“Which is pretty much all the time,” Spooks added. “No offense, Dusty, but there’s rarely a supernatural problem in this town that could be comfortably called a one-man job. Especially since none of us are exactly men, yet.”

“Eh, give it time,” Indigo said encouragingly. “I’m sure you’ll get into all kinds of manly and horrible shenanigans in college. Speaking of men, where’s your dad?” she added, looking up at Rubble.

“I… you know, that’s a good question. I haven’t seen, heard, or felt him all day. I mean, that’s not exactly weird, he does get bored easily, but you’d think he’d stick around for his kid getting out of the hospital,” he said, only a little indignant.

“Yeah. And where’s your mom, on that note?” Indigo continued.

“Oh, she’s at work,” Rubble replied easily.

“I thought she worked the night shift? She isn’t working two jobs again, is she?” Dusty asked, with some concern.

“Actually, no. She got promoted to day shift manager,” Rubble said with a hint of a smile.

“Good for her,” Spooks said amicably. “Remind me to tell her congrats in person as soon as we find the fucking stairs,” he growled, looking around with a rather cross expression.

Dusty raised an eyebrow and looked around himself. Up to that point he’d just been walking where everyone else was walking. “Yeah, shouldn’t we have hit the stairs by now?”

Rubble rolled his eyes and tapped a passing nurse on the shoulder. “Hey, dude. Where’s the stairs?”

The male nurse pointed over his shoulder. “You’re almost there. Go to the end of the hall, take a left, and it’s at the end of that hall.”

“Thank you.”

Spooky and Dusty traded sheepish glances again. “Ok yes we should have thought of that, too. Happy?” Spooks sighed.

“Indubitably,” Rubble replied in an awful English accent.

“Please never do that again,” Indigo groaned, elbowing him slightly.

-----------------------------

“Where. The FUCK. Are the STAIRS?!” Rubble barked. He was staring at the end of a rather long hallway, which just seemed to… stop. No doors, no tables, not even a decorative poster. Just a wall where, presumably, the stairs should have been. He gave the wall a kick with his good leg for measure, only to find it very very solid. “OW.”

“I swear to god if you break your other leg before we even get out of this hospital I’m writing you off as a bad accident,” Indigo groaned.

Spooks shooed Rubble out of the way as he approached the wall. Giving it a few firm taps, then patting it down, he sighed. “Yup. It’s a wall.”

“...there aren’t enough ‘No shits’ in the world for this,” Dusty grunted.

“I mean as opposed to a tactile illusion or something, you ass,” Spooks elaborated. “Hell, it feels like a load-bearing wall, almost. Solid as shit.”

Rubble sat in a nearby chair and rubbed his foot. “Yes, we established that. Get to the point.”

“My point is that,” Spooks snapped, pointing a little farther down the hall at the big sign that said ‘STAIRS’ in block letters with an arrow pointing in their direction.

Rubble looked at the sign, then at the wall. “Ok, so either the wall is brand freakin’ new or the sign is really really old. Frankly I’m kind of hoping for the latter.”

“Even if the sign was old as dirt they wouldn’t have moved an entire stairwell,” Indigo reasoned. “Besides the fact that this hospital hasn’t had any major restructuring renovations in the last twenty years, they’re all built to code. Stairs are kind of a big deal when designing a six-story building. No way they’d just up and move it. Not to mention you’d think a guy who we met literally five minutes ago would know not to point us at a stairwell that doesn’t exist anymore.”

Rubble sighed. “Ok, so the wall is new. What does that mean?” he demanded, looking stubbornly at the affronting plaster.

“Fuck if I know,” Indigo replied with a shrug.

“Well it’s not like we’re getting anywhere staring at it,” Dusty said. “Might as well turn around and-”

“HEY!” said a loud female voice behind them. The group turned as one to see Nurse Redheart tearing down the hallway at them. When she caught up, she stopped for breath, leaning over and panting.

The boys all traded glances that said, rather clearly, ‘Thank god Treble’s not here right now.’ “What can we do for you?” Spooks asked calmly.

“Do you… do you boys… still do… that monster… fighting… thing?” she panted, catching her breath between words.

Ruble and Dusty sighed in exasperation as Spooky fought the urge to do the same. “Yes. Yes we do. What seems to be the-”

“Giant… rabbit… tried to… eat a guy… painting… screaming… oh god I’m gonna pass out,” she groaned. Then she did.

Spooky rolled his eyes at Redheart’s unconscious form. “Wonderful. Indigo, be a friend and get her somewhere safe. Boys? Let’s go kill a giant rabbit.”

Indigo groaned as she picked up the sleeping nurse, tucking her into the chair Zap herself was occupying a second ago, and traded glances with Rubble. “Oh, go kick some ass. If anything happens I’ll just scream really loudly. Or hit it with a chair.”

Rubble gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Attagirl.”

-------------------------

The boys reached the gift shop in time to see that the giant rabbit had, in fact, been trying to eat a guy. Rather ineffectually, as a matter of fact, as its newfound sentience hadn’t come with a pair of teeth, so it was just smacking its adorable fluffy face on some dude’s head. Which would have been the cutest thing ever if it wasn’t for the deep growls coming from its throat and the blood running down the gentleman’s front as the repeated smacks had broken his nose and knocked him unconscious.

“Ok, that’s a new one,” Rubble noted, and the other boys nodded their agreement.

“Do we, uh… kill it?” Spooks wondered.

“How?” Dusty argued.

“Well, I think you guys should start by maybe getting it off the guy it’s beating to death,” Rubble offered helpfully, pushing Dusty forward with his cane.

Again the two traded glances. “This is not our day,” Spooky observed, then stepped forward with his friend to try and tug the giant bunny off its victim.

Which went about as well as the bunny’s attempt to devour something without teeth. The massive rabbit threw them off with an impressively solid arm, and they landed on their backsides a few feet away. “Did… did we just get tossed by Peter fucking Rabbit?” Dusty groaned.

Rubble rolled his eyes. “Oh my god,” he groaned. He stumbled forward with his cane, snapped the cheap aluminum bar in half with his hands, and ran the ragged pole through the rabbit’s head. There was a disturbing lack of fluff and a surprising amount of resistance as the improvised weapon ran itself through what should have been a giant plastic eye, only to find the eye was, in fact, an eye, backed up by gray matter and, eventually, skull. “Huh. Ok. That’s… different.”

Dusty got to his feet and pulled the unconscious rabbit victim into a doorway, sitting him up against the frame and checking his pulse. “Well, he’s alive. Good thing he’s in a hospital.”

Spooky tapped him on the shoulder and pointed down the hallway. “Yeah, that doesn’t really mean a lot right now.”

The boys followed his gaze, down the hall, into the waiting room, where apparently all hell had broken loose.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Rubble groaned.

Comments

[Dlaf rferg]

Someone call the cleaners, because the shit just hit the fan.

..If they can find a stairwell, that is.

[Phoenix Flight]

So, I’m guessing this takes place just before the last segment of the previous chapter?

[Emil]

Then on date night next week: "Indigo, we are NOT watching Donnie Darko!"

[mapu]

Great chapter. Loved the stuffed bunny.

[Neece]

8983726
They are the cleaners

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, they say misery loves company, but I doubt either group would like to know about the other's difficulties.

Also, I find myself wondering if the elder Maker's absence has any deeper meaning. A side effect of the psychonautics?

[Jarimor]

i.warosu.org/data/biz/img/0043/93/1510856245454.gif
welp, that didn’t take long.

[Olof Meister]

To register a company in a foreign jurisdiction, I suggest registration of a company who specialize in company registration services in various countries and can make the process easier and hassle-free. They can help you choose the right jurisdiction, prepare the necessary documents and ensure compliance with local requirements and laws. Registering a company abroad can provide a number of benefits such as tax benefits, access to international markets and business diversification.